It Started With A Story
by Gwyneth Alice
Summary: A series of one-shots about Amy and Rory's friendship and eventual relationship before they began traveling with the Doctor.
1. Amelia Tells A Story, Part 1

**AN: So, I figured I should start writing _something_ after filling my summer with un-productive things (though I am joining the tennis team!). I thought along the lines of Doctor Who, and this came into my mind. Probably isn't the most original idea ever, but it'll be interesting to work with, I'm sure.  
>Basically, it'll be a collection of one-shots (or two-parters) about Amy and Rory's friendship (and eventually relationship) before they began traveling with the Doctor. It'll start with their meeting each other, and probably end with Rory proposing to Amy, if I even get that far. I can't guarantee I'll write frequently, since it'll just be one-shots, but I'll see. Reviews would be very much appreciated; I promise that these will get better over time. Hope you enjoy!<strong>

**Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.**

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><p>Easter was over. School was back in session. All this meant to Amelia was she could tell more people about her encounter with the Doctor.<p>

She had told her aunt at least thirty-seven times about it. Over dinner, before bed, in the car, at the grocery store, even while her aunt was taking a shower. Each time, her aunt just pushed it off as another story; eventually, though, her aunt threatened to get her someone else to tell the story to. Amelia wasn't sure who her aunt meant, but wasn't completely sure she wanted to find out.

She skipped off the school bus and into the school building. She waved to her music teacher Mrs. Hendricks, and ran in front of her to get her to stop.

"What is it, Amelia?" Mrs. Hendricks inquired politely.

"Do you want to hear a story?" Amelia asked excitedly.

"Well, sure, dear, but make it quick."

"Well, during Easter break, I was praying to Santa to get someone to fix the crack in my wall, and this blue box crashed in my backyard, and this man came out, and-"

"Oh, Amelia, it sounds like a fascinating story, but I must get to my classroom. You can tell me about it later, dear." Mrs. Hendricks patted the top of Amelia's head, and quickly shuffled past her.

Amelia frowned. She had a feeling she wouldn't have the opportunity to tell her the rest of the story. She quickly shook off the disappointment, though, and skipped down the hallway until she reached her classroom.

Surprisingly, there weren't many students in the room. Her bus must have come early today, she thought. She shrugged to herself and emptied the contents of her backpack into her cubby, then hung her backpack on the hook and took her seat in the back. She turned to see there were three girls talking a few seats away, and turned to them.

"Do you want to hear a story?" Amelia said loudly to them.

Only one of the girls turned around. The girl, whose name was Sharon, had straight blonde hair and green eyes, and was wearing a short pink dress. "No." She said rudely, then turned back to the others. Giggles emitted from the group, and Amelia frowned, sliding down in her seat.

"Excuse me." A low voice said to Amelia. Her head shot up to look at the person. He was an unfamiliar boy, whose only distinct feature was his biggish nose.

"Mmm?" Amelia said, sitting up.

"Um, where is everyone?" He said, motioning to the room. Amelia noticed that nobody else had entered the room since she arrived but him, and that over half of the desks were empty.

Amelia shrugged. "I just thought the buses hadn't come yet."

The boy looked around quickly, then leaned closer to Amelia's face and whispered, "I heard they caught chicken pox."

Amelia's eyes widened. "Really?"

The boy nodded. "My mum said that all the kids who went to the Easter Festival caught it, because some other kid there had it."

Amelia hesitated, then said, "I didn't go to the festival."

"Neither did I." The boy said. "And I don't think most anyone else in here was there either."

"Oh, okay." Amelia said awkwardly, short of other words. She looked up at the boy, who had started to walk away, and then said, "Wait! Do you want to hear a story?"

The boy stopped, and turned around. His countenance had brightened, and his steps back to her were quicker than his previous ones. "I love stories. What's it about?"

Amelia smiled, and began, "Well, over Easter break, I was praying to Santa-"

"You pray to Santa?"

"Yeah."

"Are you.. supposed to pray to Santa?"

"I don't know. People pray to God. Why not pray to Santa?"

The boy shrugged. Amelia continued, "Well, anyway, I was praying to Santa about getting the crack in my wall fixed-"

"Crack in your wall? Can't your dad fix that?"

Amelia's face fell. "I don't have a dad."

The boy's eyes widened, embarrassed. "Sorry." He mumbled.

"It's okay." Amelia said quickly. "Anyway, it wasn't a crack that someone like that can fix. There were voices in the crack that talked to me at night."

"Oh."

"Anyway, so after I finished praying to Santa, I heard something outside. I went outside in my nighty and saw this big blue box that crashed in my garden!"

"Whoa!"

Before Amelia could continue, the bell rang, and the teacher, Miss Winters, entered the room. Without addressing the class, she began writing information for the day on the blackboard.

"I should get back to my seat." The boy whispered.

"But I haven't finished the story!"

The boy looked around again, then said, "Tell me at lunch, then."

Amelia nodded. As he was getting up to leave, she tugged on his arm. "Wait, what's your name?"

"Rory."

"Rory… I've never met you before, Rory."

"Well, I only just came here a few weeks ago."

Amelia nodded. "Talk to you at lunch."

Rory nodded, and quickly walked back to his seat. As he sat down, Miss Winters turned around.

"Good morning, class." Miss Winters said with a smile on her face.

"Good morning, Miss Winters." The class responded in unison.

"Now, you may have noticed that the class is a bit… empty today. That's because a lot of kids got sick with the chicken pox at the Easter Festival this past weekend."

Amelia gasped, and saw from the corner of her eye Rory turning and smirking at her.

"But we still have class today, regardless. Now, would anyone like to share what they did over Easter break?"

Hands shot up, and Miss Winters selected students to share their stories. Most of them were the same, with having just gone to church on Sunday, having a big Easter dinner with the family, and going on an egg hunt afterwards. A few others were trips to the country or to their grandparents' homes.

"I ate 16 Cadbury eggs in one sitting." Rory shared. Amelia and a few others giggled, while Miss Winters had a slightly disapproving look on her face.

Amelia, having had her hand raised for several minutes, was finally called on. "Well, I didn't really do much for Easter other than eat half of a chocolate bunny, but a big blue box landed in my garden, and the man inside fixed the crack on my wall!"

Miss Winters had a skeptical look on her face. The rest of the class other than Rory seemed that way too. Rory looked back at Amelia with a sympathetic look on his face, but Amelia was too sad at the response to notice.

Without commenting on Amelia's statement, Miss Winters moved on to the next student, leaving Amelia more depressed than earlier. After the stories were finished, Miss Winters began to teach the lesson, with Amelia barely bothering to listen.

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><p>"Alright, class, for the next fifteen minutes, I'd like you to read pages 124-130 in your history books, and answer all eight questions on page 131." Miss Winters said to the class, two hours into the day.<p>

"May we have partners?" A girl behind Amelia called.

"Don't call out without raising your hand." Miss Winters scolded. "But I suppose so."

Several students cheered, and Amelia just slouched in her seat. Nobody would want to be her partner; they all had friends that they liked better.

"Is it okay if we're partners?" A familiar voice said a short distance from her. She looked up to see Rory, sitting in the seat in front of her with his history textbook and notebook in hand.

Amelia smiled. "Yep." She opened her book to the required page. "Now, do you want to start reading, or should-"

"I was actually thinking that you could tell the story instead."

Amelia widened her eyes. He was really interested in her story. She liked that.

"So, I went outside, and saw that this big blue box had crashed into the garden, and-"

"Was it an actual blue box?"

"Well, it was more like rectangular-shaped box, but a blue box anyway."

"Okay."

"Anyway, there were doors on top, and they opened, and a man came out!"

"Whoa! How did he come out of a rectangular-shaped blue box?"

"I dunno. It looked like he was climbing out, like it was bigger than it looked, but he could have just been lying down in it. Or standing up. I think the box should have been standing up."

"What if it was a giant blue coffin? Then the doors would of been in the right place."

"I don't think it was a coffin. He didn't seem like he had been dead."

"Alright. Go on."

"Well, after that, he-"

Before Amelia could finish, she heard Miss Winters clear her throat several inches from her. Both Amelia and Rory looked up to see Miss Winters giving them a stern look.

"How much have you two read?" She asked them, tapping her foot.

"Oh, um, we couldn't remember the page numbers, so-"

"Split up, the two of you. If you're just going to chat, then you'll never get to work. Also, you'll both be inside for playtime. And not to chat, either."

The children looked equally crestfallen as Miss Winters walked away. A moment later, as Rory began to gather his books, they had recovered.

"Talk to you at lunch?" Rory whispered.

Amelia nodded and smiled. Rory grinned, and shuffled back to his seat.


	2. Amelia Tells A Story, Part 2

**AN: Oh, hey, I have the next part written already. Thanks for alerting, favoriting, and reviewing; it puts a smile on my face to see all of these updates in my emails, knowing that people are interested in my story. This is the last part of this little story, and I'm not completely sure of what I'm going to write next. I don't even know if I'll get something out before Sunday, because that's the day I leave for summer camp. If I don't have a chapter posted then, then don't expect one until a week later at least. I'll get working on it though! Please give me feedback; I liked this chapter a bit more than my last one, so hopefully it will be well liked. Enjoy!**

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><p>"Fish fingers and custard? He ate fish fingers and custard?"<p>

"Yes! I've said that twice now."

"That's disgusting!"

Apparently most of the students at the elementary school had been at that festival, because only six of the thirteen tables in the cafeteria were full. A seventh had only Amelia and Rory, who were busy eating their sandwiches and talking about Amelia's story between bites.

"Yeah. He didn't like any of the normal food I gave him. He was just weird about it." Amelia said after she took a long sip of her chocolate milk. "Anyway, we talked a bit while he was eating. Did you know that he doesn't have an aunt? Lucky!"

Rory laughed. Amelia continued, "Anyway, after we finished eating, he went up to my room to look at the crack in my wall, and he said some stuff that I didn't really understand, and-"

"Like what?"

Amelia looked up from her sandwich. "I don't really remember. Something about cowboys. He also said that if you broke down the wall in my room, the crack would still be there."

"Some crack."

"Yeah. Anyway, and then he told me that on the other end of the wall there was a _prison_!"

"How's that possible?"

"I dunno. But I'll get back to that later. Anyway, he said the only way to close it was to open it, so he took out this silver thingy that he had used before and he held it up to the crack, and it opened! And on the other end of it, there was this giant eyeball!"

"Eww!"

"It didn't look gross. It just looked big, and like an eyeball."

"Oh, okay."

"Anyway, it looked around for a bit, then shot this ball of light at the Doctor's pocket, and then the crack on the wall closed. Then the Doctor looked at this paper pad in his pocket, and said it was a message from the eyeball, which was Prisoner Zero's guard."

"Prisoner Zero?"

"Oh, right. The voices in the crack kept saying that Prisoner Zero had escaped. The Doctor said that Prisoner Zero must of escaped from the crack."

"Okay."

"Then the Doctor ran into the hallway because he was looking for Prisoner Zero, and then he said something, and then we heard this bell going off."

"What was it?"

"Well, the Doctor ran out to his blue box, and said that the engines were failing."

"His blue box had engines?"

"Yeah, that's what he said. He said that it was a time machine."

"A time machine?"

"A time machine."

Rory didn't say anything. Amelia took this as a sign to continue. "He said he had to take it five minutes into the future to stabilize the engines." Amelia paused.

Rory waited for her to continue, but after watching her take the last few bites from her sandwich, he asked, "What happened next?"

"He said he'd be back in five minutes." Amelia said quietly. "I went and packed my things because he said I could come with him in five minutes. I fell asleep outside, and woke up in my bed again, like it never happened."

Rory had the slight urge to question if it really did happen, but he resisted. Though he had a difficult time believing someone had a time machine, he had found her story fascinating, and didn't want to hurt her now that she was apparently becoming emotional.

"I had a dream about the Doctor that night. Not what happened when I was awake, but he was just sitting by my bed, talking to me. I woke up, and all of it felt like a dream, but I know that what I just told you really happened."

Not sure of what else to say, Rory asked, "Have you told anyone else?"

"Oh yeah, I told my aunt. As soon as I woke up, I ran downstairs and told her everything while she was eating her pancakes. She told me that it must have been a nice dream, and I started crying and stomping around the kitchen telling her it wasn't a dream."

Rory chuckled. Amelia didn't acknowledge this, mostly because she didn't understand what he meant by it. She continued, "I told her a lot more times since then. The last time I told her, yesterday at dinner, she said that she'd find me someone else to tell the story to. I don't know who, but the way she said it didn't make it sound like it was a nice person."

Rory shrugged. He didn't know what her aunt was talking about, either. "Well, you did find someone else to tell the story to."

"Who?"

Rory rolled his eyes. "Me!"

"Oh." Amelia said before pausing, then smiling. "Well, I'm glad someone else wanted to hear the story. Thanks for listening to it."

"No problem." Rory smiled. "It was a great story."

Then, out of the blue, Amelia asked, "Do you think he'll come back?"

"The Doctor?"

"Yeah."

Rory paused. He was still slightly skeptical to believe this Doctor actually existed. He decided to answer in reference to her dreams, and answered, "Yes. I'm sure he will."

Amelia, obviously, took this as the Doctor's return in reality. "Yeah. Maybe he accidentally pressed the buttons in his time machine for him to return later than five minutes."

"Well, yeah, since it's been more than five minutes since he's come back." Rory said, blunter than Rory had expected it to sound.

Amelia's face fell. The school bell signaling the end of lunch rang overhead, so Amelia stood up silently and dumped out her trash. Rory quickly got up from his seat to go after her, but he accidentally dropped his tray of food on the ground, making him the last person to leave the cafeteria.

It was playtime now. This meant everybody else went outside, and Amelia and Rory remained inside. Amelia knew Miss Winters had playtime duty today, so she'd have to go to the other second grade classroom during recess.

The teacher was sitting at her desk in the front of the room, facing the window and obviously distracted. She was wearing headphones, so she was probably listening to music. There were two other students in the room, seated near the front, so Amelia sat in the back corner.

Rory entered the room a few minutes later, just as the bell rang again, alerting the other children that playtime started. He quickly scanned the room for Amelia, and quickly walked to the seat next to hers when he found her.

The two other students were doodling, and the teacher wasn't paying attention to them, so Rory leaned over and whispered, "I shouldn't of said that."

Amelia, who was staring out the window herself, was startled by Rory's presence, and jumped slightly in her seat. Rory chuckled a bit, and Amelia just crossed her arms and turned the other direction.

After checking to see the others weren't paying attention, he leaned in again and whispered, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't of said what I said earlier, and I shouldn't of laughed."

"Well," Amelia whispered as she turned around, "it wasn't really the laughing I was mad at."

"I'm sorry I made you sad with what I said before."

Amelia smiled sadly. "Thanks for apologizing. I shouldn't of gotten so mad."

"It's okay." Rory said quietly. "So, are we friends again?"

Amelia's eyes brightened. "We're friends?"

"Yeah. If that's okay."

Amelia smiled. "Then yeah. We're friends."


	3. Friends With A Nutter, Part 1

**Thanks for reading and reviewing and such, even after I haven't been writing for over a week. Please continue to do so; it's much appreciated!**

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><p>It was a rainy last day of first grade. As soon as the bell rang signaling the end of another school year, the students, donned in brightly-colored mackintoshes, were quick to run outside and jump in the puddles. Amelia and Rory, though near the back of the crowd, were no different.<p>

"What are you doing this summer?" Amelia asked Rory as they waited for the students to make their way outside.

"Not much. My mum said we may visit New York City, but I haven't heard much else about it." Rory said. "What about you?"

"Nothing." Amelia mumbled. "My aunt doesn't like traveling."

Rory paused, and quietly said, "Maybe you could come with us."

Amelia, however, was too busy imagining traveling with the Doctor instead to hear him. After she realized he was saying something, she quickly inquired, "What did you say?"

"Oh, um, nothing." Rory said, feeling awkward. By this time, they were outside in the rainy, humid conditions.

Amelia spotted a large, vacant puddle across the pavement, and tapped Rory's shoulder. After he noticed it, they ran over to the puddle, and began splashing each other in it.

After several minutes of this, Amelia noticed an unfamiliar woman walking towards them. She had black hair pulled into a bun, and tired green eyes. She was wearing dark navy business attire and black heels, and a bit too much makeup, which was now beginning to run down her face.

Rory noticed Amelia's watching her, and turned around. "Hey Mum." He said, barely loud enough for her to hear.

"Why are you splashing around in puddles?" She grabbed her son's shoulder and pulled him away from the water. "I bought these jeans for you last week, and you're already getting mud on them."

"No 'Hello, Rory, how was your day?' today, I suppose." Rory muttered to Amelia, who giggled.

His mother rolled her eyes, then faced Amelia. "And who are you?"

"I'm Amelia Jessica Pond. I'm seven years old, and I'm Scottish, and I live-"

"Okay, that's quite enough, dear." Rory's mother said, holding out her hand for her to stop. She looked down at Rory. "Is this the Amelia you always talk about?"

Rory's face flushed red as he mumbled, "Yes."

"Hey, I talk about you a lot, too." Amelia said, biting her lip as she remembered that her aunt could care less about the friend she made.

"Really?" Rory asked as his eyes brightened.

As Amelia was about to nod, Rory's mother interrupted. "How about you come over for lunch tomorrow, Amelia? We have such a large back garden that you two can play in."

"Oh, that would be wonderful." Amelia said, smiling at Rory.

"Do you need to talk to your parents about it?"

"Oh, I only have an aunt. She's not home on Saturdays, anyway."

"Where is she?"

Amelia shrugged her shoulders, and Rory's mother frowned. "Well, you're welcome to come over tomorrow around eleven. Just have her drop you off." She said politely to Amelia.

Amelia nodded. "Thanks, miss." She turned to Rory, and added, "See you tomorrow," before running up the hill to catch the bus.

As they started walking up the hill, Rory's mother said to him, "She's your friend?"

"Yes." Rory answered awkwardly, knowing that this was going to come.

"Oh, um, alright. Do you want to invite any of your other friends over tomorrow as well? I'm sure Amelia wouldn't mind."

"Um, I don't really have any others."

Rory's mother sighed quite audibly, signaling Rory that he should prepare for a stern lecture in the car on the way home.

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><p>At 10:53 the next morning, Rory sat awkwardly on the living room sofa, waiting for Amelia's arrival. As much as he was looking forward to having Amelia over, he wasn't looking forward to Amelia being watched like a lab rat.<p>

The stern lecture yesterday had been saved for dinner at home with his father, a psychiatrist. Rory's mother told him of Amelia's aunt's care of her niece (or what little information she did know), and Rory's father decided that he needed to observe if "her aunt's apparent mistreatment of her niece has impacted her mind and personality in a negative way."

So, whatever exactly that entailed, it meant that their entire day together would be observed by Rory's father. If he believed that there was something "wrong" with her mind, then he would make sure that Rory wouldn't spend any more time with her.

Rory started to crack his knuckles, something he only did when he was nervous (and his parents weren't around). He'd only known Amelia for a few months; he wasn't ready to lose her company yet.

The doorbell rang, and Rory immediately reacted by jumping from the couch and answering the door. When he opened the door, Amelia was standing on the other end of the porch, admiring the large dogwood tree. Rory's eyes quickly went from her aunt's car driving down the street to Amelia, and he stepped out the door to walk behind her.

He tapped her shoulder, and startled her. He chuckled as she turned around and punched him lightly in the arm.

"Do you like the tree?" He asked.

"It's pretty."

There was a short pause, before Rory said, "You should see our back garden. We have loads of trees back there."

"Can I?"

Rory nodded enthusiastically, and led her through the house. He noticed his dad sitting in the kitchen, sipping his coffee as he watched them; Rory ignored his presence, proceeding to the back door.

Amelia's jaw dropped as Rory opened the door to the back garden. The large grassy area was decorated with trees, bushes, and a swing set; the backdrop to the entire yard was a small wooded area. The patio that the two of them stood on had plenty of fancy outdoor furniture, along with a large grill, a bar, and a small stone fountain.

"Wow." Was all Amelia could manage to say.

"You get used to it after a while." Rory responded, unsure of what else to say.

"You must be really rich."

Rory smiled. "I dunno. My dad's a psychiatrist, and my mum a lawyer, but I don't know how much money is in the bank."

"My aunt says those sorts of people make_ loads_ of money."

"What does your aunt do?"

"I think she's a personal assistant. I don't know who for, though."

Rory nodded. He then pointed to the sky, and Amelia looked up. She saw a large wooden tree house perched on a thick branch, about fifty feet in the air.

"Wanna go see it?" He asked.

Amelia nodded excitedly, and they started to climb the tree.

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><p>Rory smiled to himself. He and Amelia had just spent the last two hours in the tree house, too high and far for his father to watch them. He had shown Amelia some of the toys and books that he stowed away for when he wanted to go up there on his own, and they took turns swinging on the tire swing above the long platform nailed onto a branch.<p>

"How'd you get all of this up here?" Amelia asked.

"It took more than four months, but my dad and my uncle just built all of this here."

"Have you ever swung off of the edge of the platform?"

"My dad says it's made so you can't." He pointed to the rope. "The rope is only long enough so you can only swing a certain distance. The platform is plenty long, and there are branches that will keep you from falling too."

"Wow. That's really cool." She commented.

Rory smiled. As they walked back inside the tree house, he heard his mom call, "Lunch time, kids!"

Rory's eyes widened in horror. His parents would most likely be watching and listening to Amelia, analyzing her for the slightest thing that they viewed as a problem. He crossed his fingers that nothing would go wrong.

When they had entered the house, there were already sandwiches and crisps on the table. Rory's father sat at the head of the table, and Rory's mother was busy cleaning up the kitchen.

"Hello Rory, Amelia." Rory's father said politely as they took their seats at the table.

Amelia nodded in response as she took a largish bite from her sandwich. Rory observed that his father took note of this in his black medical notebook.

"So, Amelia, what do your parents do for a living?"

Of course. Ask her a question you already know the answer to, to get more details about the answer. Rory scowled slightly at his father, knowing what he was trying to do.

"I don't have any parents." Amelia said, her voice sounding slightly sad.

"Then who takes care of you?" Rory's father asked, having no sympathy in his voice for the child.

"My aunt."

"What does she do?"

"She's a personal assistant of some sort. I don't know a lot about her job."

He nodded, and wrote the information in his notebook. Amelia noticed this, and asked, "Why are you writing stuff down?"

His father chuckled slightly. "Oh, I'm just getting all of this information about you down so I can remember it."

Amelia briefly had a look of confusion and suspicion on her face, but she decided to overlook what he was doing, and continued to eat her sandwich. Rory, however, sent another brief glare in his father's direction. He hated the fact that he was lying to his friend just to get inside her mind.

"What do you like to do in your free time?"

"Oh, I like to read. And play with Rory. And imagine."

"What sort of things do you imagine?"

"Oh, lots of things." Amelia said, putting her sandwich down. "I like imagining things in history."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I'd go to all of those places with the Doctor."

Rory's eyes widened. He wanted to do so many things: gasp, groan, sigh, smack his forehead, cry slightly, take Amelia away from his dad, and many other things. He, however, refrained from doing all of these things to the best of his abilities. However, he did several quick intakes of air, and his face flushed bright red.

He had believed Amelia was over the Doctor, that she had realized it was all a dream. Maybe she still did believe it was a dream, but that it was a really cool one. Yes, I'll go with that theory, Rory thought. There's no way that she still believes-

"-Yes, he came to my house one night during Easter break. I was praying to Santa, and I heard a crash in the garden, and-"


	4. Friends With A Nutter, Part 2

When Amelia finished, Rory's father had filled two and a half notebook pages worth of information about this girl. He had a small smile on his face, not because of her story, but because of the money he would make trying to fix this girl.

"What a lovely story, Amelia." Rory's father said with a cold edge in his voice. "Now that you two have finished your lunch, you may both go outside and play again."

Rory nodded as he pulled gently on Amelia's arm to get her to follow behind. After they were back in the tree house a few minutes later, Rory was obviously emotionally distraught.

"Are you okay?" Amelia asked, sitting down in the bean bag next to him.

"No." Rory said bluntly, hiding his head in his hands.

"What's wrong?" Amelia questioned after a moment's silence.

Rory looked up at Amelia. He wanted to tell her in a way he knew wouldn't hurt her. But he knew she wasn't like that; he knew she wasn't crazy. She may have been set on believing this story was true - and hey, maybe it was; maybe it was one of those crazy miracles you read about in books; but Rory knew that Amelia wasn't mentally ill. He didn't need to lie to her as though she was a three-year-old.

Rory breathed, and said, "I don't think my dad believes your story."

Amelia had a puzzled look on her face. She didn't say anything.

There was a long pause. Amelia twiddled her fingers in her lap, and Rory observed a bird feeding her children. Finally, Rory said, "He just doesn't have a very big imagination."

Amelia sat up. "It's not imagining, though. It was real."

"Right." Rory said quietly. "Anyway, the way he thinks doesn't go far outside the box. Anything that sounds a bit out of the ordinary is mad to him."

"But why does he care?"

"He's a psychiatrist. A doctor that helps people who are sick in their mind, he told me once. And, he doesn't want me to be friends with people who he thinks are mad."

Amelia looked down, crestfallen. "Do you think I'm mad?" She mumbled, her words barely making it to Rory's ears.

"No, I don't." He answered. "And I don't care what my dad says. Even if you were as loony as my grandmum, I'd still be your friend."

Amelia smiled. "Thanks."

* * *

><p>"Miss Amelia Pond, please."<p>

Amelia sighed. Rory's dad did think she was mad. When she had left Rory's house, he had called her Aunt Sharon and convinced her that she should schedule an appointment with him because he believed her niece was mad. Aunt Sharon, of course, didn't mind - if her niece was mad, she wanted it fixed; there was no way she'd let the kid ruin her reputation around the village.

Amelia and her Aunt Sharon followed the assistant into Dr. Williams' office. Amelia sat down in one of the uncomfortable chairs and crossed her arms. She didn't want to be here right now.

"Oh, I'll be right back, Amelia." Aunt Sharon called from the other end of the room. "I need to use the restroom."

Without waiting for a response, she was off, leaving Amelia in the room on her own. She sat and looked at the posters on the wall, which included animals saying supposedly cute, inspirational things.

Suddenly, Amelia heard a sneeze from across the room. She stood up, and walked over to the large mahogany desk. She looked underneath it to find Rory was crouched beneath the desk, rubbing his nose.

Amelia grinned. "What are you doing here?"

Rory's head jerked up to see Amelia. "Oh, hello."

"Hello."

"Um, I came here to wish you luck."

"I don't even know what I'm supposed to do here, Rory."

"Well, I'm not completely sure either." Rory stood up. "I think my dad's just gonna ask you a bunch of questions to get more details about your story."

"And what happens if he thinks I really am mad?"

Rory shrugged his shoulders. "He'll probably just do a bunch of things to try to make you… not mad."

"What if I don't like what he's trying to do to me?"

Rory hesitated. A small smile formed on his lips. "Bite him."

Amelia laughed. "What?"

"Bite him." She probably wouldn't bite him anyway, Rory thought. There was nothing that his father usually administered with his patients that would be bite-worthy.

"..Alright." Amelia said. "If you think it's what I should do.

Rory nodded. He was about to say something, but he heard talking outside the room. "It's my dad and your aunt." He whispered. "I'm going to hide in the closet."

"Okay." Amelia nodded. "You sure you want me to bite him?"

Rory shrugged his shoulders. "As long as you think you need to, then sure. Just don't tell him I gave you the idea."

Amelia giggled, and Rory quickly hid in the closet in the back of the room. As he shut the door, he heard the main door to his father's office open. He crossed his fingers for Amelia that her appointment would go well.

* * *

><p>Forty-five minutes had passed, and Dr. Williams was still talking to Amelia. Rory could feel the dust collecting on his body for being in there what felt like weeks.<p>

He could barely hear what any of them were saying. He heard the word "Doctor" thrown around plenty of times, and he heard "fish custard"; but he had trouble picking out many other words. He could tell that Amelia had done a lot of talking, and that his father was asking her questions in the same monotonous tone.

As Rory was about to fall asleep, he heard a yell. His eyes widened as he pressed his ear against the door.

"What the devil!" His father exclaimed. "Amelia, please sit back down!"

"I'm terribly sorry, Dr. Williams." Amelia's aunt apologized after a moment's hesitation.

There was another pause, before Rory's father said, "I'm sorry, but I don't think it would be best to schedule another appointment with me. I have a few recommendations that may suit you. You may want to get her… problem fixed first. And I don't mean with her hallucinations."

Rory could have sworn he heard Amelia growl. Or hiss. Or make some noise in attempt to scare his father. Rory wasn't sure what to think at this point.

"May I finish this conversation with you in the hall, Sharon?" His father asked.

Nothing more was said; presumably, Amelia's aunt had nodded, and followed Rory's father into the hallway. He was hesitant to open the door, however, in case they were both still in the room.

A few minutes later, he heard the door knob turn. He backed into the boxes in the closet, in case it was his father. When the door opened, he sighed in relief to see it was Amelia. She had a sad look on her face.

"What happened? Why is my dad angry?" Rory asked immediately.

"Well, he kept asking me all of these questions about my life and my meeting with the Doctor, and eventually…" Amelia trailed off, not willing to finish.

"What?" Rory questioned.

"Um, I bit him."

Rory's eyes widened so much that they could have burst from his skull. "What did he do that made you have to bite him?"

"He told me the Doctor wasn't real."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So, sorry for the longer wait; I believe I did say these updates would probably not be frequent, and I'd been blocked a bit with this last half of the story. I settled with taking this direction, and I hope you liked it. No idea when I'll post the next one, but I have a six-hour trip this Sunday; though I plan to read a lot on the trip, I do plan to write, or at least plan on what to write. Thank you <em>so<em> much for all the alerts, favorites, and reviews; please continue to provide feedback, as it is still much appreciated. **


	5. Rory The Nurse

**AN: I had fun writing this one. It takes place probably a few months after the events of the previous story, though it would probably fit anywhere in the first few years of their friendship. I greatly appreciate all of the alerts and everything; please leave me some feedback! **

* * *

><p>Amelia heard a knock on the back door. Double checking to make sure her aunt had left to play poker, she ran downstairs to the back door.<p>

"What's the password?" She whispered loudly, hoping the person would hear.

"Amelia, it's me." Rory said. "I don't even remember the password."

"It's what I made for you last week." Amelia said in a sing-song-y voice.

"More like what you burned for me last week." Rory muttered.

"Shush!" Amelia exclaimed, though not offended by his comment. "Just tell me what it was!"

"Fish custard." Rory said quietly.

Amelia pulled open the door and grinned at Rory. He smiled, and walked inside.

"What did you tell your parents this time?" Amelia asked.

"I told 'em I was going to the playground on the next block." Rory said, following her into the kitchen. "I have to be back at two, though."

Amelia looked at the clock; it was 12:30. "Well, we still have a _little_ time."

"Yeah. What do you want to do?"

Amelia shrugged. "If we leave the house, your parents might see me with you."

Rory frowned at the fact that he now had to hide his friendship with Amelia from his parents. His face brightened, though, as an idea popped into his head. "What if we just ran into each other at the park?"

Amelia smiled. "You have good ideas a lot."

Rory shrugged, and smiled. "Thanks."

Amelia, without warning, ran upstairs. Rory started to follow her, but hesitated, worrying that he wasn't supposed to be upstairs. She returned a few minutes later, wearing a pair of sunglasses and a big floppy straw hat.

She pulled her sunglasses to the tip of her nose and looked at Rory. "I don't want to be recognized." She pushed them back.

He opened the door, and the two of them walked out into the street. The playground was only a block away, but the two were extremely careful to make sure no one was watching them. They hid behind trees and cars, and could hardly wait for a green light to cross the street. When they finally reached the playground, they fell onto a bench and let out sighs of relief.

"That was hard." Amelia said, sitting up and taking off her sunglasses.

"Yeah. Maybe next time we should just leave at different times." Rory suggested.

"It was fun, though." Amelia added.

"Yeah."

They sat there for a few more minutes before simultaneously bolting to a part of the playground.

* * *

><p>"Captain Rory! We need you on the upper deck!"<p>

Rory climbed up the ladder and ran to where Amelia was standing. "What is it, Commander?"

"We're crashing into the moon!"

"Crashing into the moon?"

"Crashing into the moon, sir!"

"How could this be?"

"The engines must be failing. I've tried to reset the coordinates, but they won't change."

Rory scratched his head. He examined the area they were standing in before looking out onto the playground. He turned to Amelia. "We'll have to evacuate the ship."

"But sir! We'll be jumping into space!"

"And?"

"And… jumping into space is dangerous, sir!"

"Not if you're wearing a space suit, it isn't." Rory pointed to the imaginary suits hanging on the wall. "Get into yours while I call for help."

Amelia pretended to awkwardly slip on her suit while Rory used the imaginary phone to call Earth. "We need you to send out an emergency ship to pick up the commander and I. We're about the crash into the moon." He paused. "Thank you, sir. We'll be waiting somewhere near the moon." He hung up the phone and began putting on his suit.

"Somewhere near the moon?" Amelia questioned nervously.

Rory shrugged. "Where else are we supposed to go?"

He began pushing imaginary buttons on the imaginary panel. He turned to his side, where an opening for a pole was. They were about fifteen feet from the ground where they were standing.

"We need to jump." Rory informed Amelia.

"Jump?" Amelia looked cautiously over the edged. She turned and whispered, "Rory, I'm too scared to jump all the way down there."

"Don't worry." He whispered. "You can hold on to the pole."

Amelia nodded, and walked toward the pole. She looked down for a few moments, staring at the ground as though she could make it closer to her.

"You're going to need a running start if you want to escape the orbit of the ship." Rory called from behind her.

Amelia took several steps back, turned to Rory, and gulped. She turned back to the pole and began running towards it. As she allowed her feet to leave the ground, she let out a small shriek. She grabbed hold of the pole and began to slide down, but her sweaty hands soon found their grip slipping, and before she realized it, Amelia had fallen to the ground on her knees.

Tears pooled in her eyes as she tried to blink them away, fearing she'd embarrass herself in front of Rory. She looked down at her knees, and saw some blood trickling into the playground woodchips.

Rory immediately slid himself down the pole when he noticed Amelia was hurt. He ran over to her and kneeled down to her level. He helped her turn over, and immediately noticed her bleeding knee.

He looked up. He could see the roof of his house from here. He looked back down to Amelia. "I'm going to help you. I just need a few things."

"What things?" Amelia asked, tears escaping from her eyes.

"Tissues, Band-Aids, things like that." He said, standing up. "I can see my house from here. I'll be back in two minutes, I promise."

Before Amelia could say anything, he had bolted off. He had never imagined that he could run this fast; but he couldn't bear to see Amelia hurt like that, so he had to help her as soon as he could.

Thankfully, both the gate and the back door of his house were unlocked, so he made his way quickly into his house once he reached it. Without bothering to shut either, he ran past the kitchen into the bathroom and began grabbing things: Band-Aids, antibiotic cream, cotton balls, anything he thought could help. As he ran back to the door, he grabbed some paper towels and an unopened bottle of water and quickly left his house. The wind he created managed to shut the back door, and he used his free hand (or what little of it he could) to shut the gate.

He soon made it back to Amelia at the playground. He took one of the paper towels, made it wet with the water, and started wiping the dirt from the wound. Amelia winced slightly as he cleaned it.

He took the antibiotic cream and smothered as much as he could over the wound. He had no idea how much to use, so he thought using a lot of it would definitely help. After slathering on about half of the bottle, he wiped off some of the excess and began to open a Band-Aid. He placed it over the wound, and flattened it as tightly as he could against her skin.

After wiping off his hands, he offered Amelia his hand and helped her up. She took a few steps and smiled at Rory. "Thanks."

"No problem." He began to pick up his things and placed them on the bench.

"You'd make a good nurse." Amelia commented, walking over to him.

Rory stared at her, bewildered at her suggestion. "Me? A nurse? No! Girls are nurses!"

Amelia shrugged. "I've seen girls play football. Why can't boys be nurses?"

Rory wasn't sure what to say. "Um, well, I think I'd rather be a doctor."

"Doctors have to cut people open and take their guts out."

"Not all doctors have to do that."

"Doctors have to be smart."

"Oi!" Rory exclaimed, and immediately saw by Amelia's giggling that she was joking. "I'd think I'd still rather be a doctor." He said.

Amelia shook her head. She couldn't imagine Rory dressed as a doctor: white jacket, stethoscope, - or, for that matter, in a tattered brown pinstripe suit. So, because of this insignificant detail, she came to the conclusion that he wouldn't make a good doctor. "You'd make a better nurse." She told him.

Rory sighed. "We'll see."


End file.
